Serving Up An Ace

By combining a sharp focus on sustainable profitability with innovation, the Sanjiv Bajaj-led Bajaj Finserv has created a financial powerhouse straddling multiple business lines. At the core of it: A rock-solid NBFC, Bajaj Finance, which is the darling of investors.

- Sourav MajuMdar & Salil Panchal

Earlier this year, seven members of the management team of the Rs 18,000 crore-plus (revenues) Bajaj Finserv Ltd (BFS), the financial services mothership of the Bajaj Group, were in Silicon Valley, meeting some of the world’s best-known corporations and venture capitalists. This not only included Microsoft, Amazon and Salesforce, but also 15 fintech startups which were doing new and different things in the finance space.

“The kind of things they are doing there just blew our minds. We thought tapping into the India opportunity was good enough but it was fascinating to see how they are using technology and ideas to change small aspects of the business,” says Sanjiv Bajaj, 46, the second son of 77-year-old group patriarch Rahul Bajaj.

Sanjiv Bajaj took over as BFS’s managing director in 2008, after a widely publicised group demerger which saw two-wheeler giant Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL), the then flagship, go to older brother Rajiv while Sanjiv focussed on financial services. (The Bajaj family was ranked 19th on the 2015 Forbes India Rich List with a total net worth of $4.4 billion, as of September 2015.)

Today, BFS operates as the financial services holding company of the group, and holds stakes in three key businesses: Bajaj Finance Ltd (BFL), the non-banking finance company, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance (Bagic) and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance (Balic). BFS holds 57.5 percent in BFL and 74 percent each in the insurance firms which are joint ventures with Allianz of Germany.